The present invention relates to a machine for bending pipes and wire-like material in general, comprising a machine bed supporting a bending head and a carriage provided for gripping the end of the workpiece opposite to the bending head.
Prior bending machines for bending wire-like materials, such as rods or pipes, mainly comprise a machine bed supporting a plate with a carriage provided with a gripper which is controllably driven, and a head including a curing unit also of a servocontrolled type.
The gripper is so designed as to grip a rod or pipe length for adjustably displacing and turning said length along the axis thereof. The head is operatively coupled to the machine bed so as to adjust its position transversal of the gripper axis by small displacements.
Such an arrangement of the bending machine allows to align a die, provided on a bending unit connected to the head, with the axis of the rod or pipe length gripped by the gripper. Thus, it will be possible to engage the rod or pipe length in a recess formed in the die, to bend said length.
Prior bending machines are at present associated with handling devices, such as robots, for automatically supplying and unloading the workpieces, or for sending a machined workpiece to other machining units.
The control, such as the programming, of the mentioned handling units is very difficult.
The requirement of performing a handling operation, and, in particular, an accurate handling of the workpiece, is due to the fact that high making speeds are required and that it is also desired to prevent the bent rod or pipe length from disorderly falling as it is released by the bending arm.